Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

56 reviews

thechaoshour's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I love the general idea of this book but it was executed poorly. The characters were unlikeable and I found the plot slow and boring. It was just a lot of bullying and abuse from the Heirs and not much plot. Plus the writing was not good and it needs some new editing but as I understand it, this book was earlier in their careers. I’m curious enough to keep reading for now in hopes they get better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Bullying

Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Murder

_alyssar_'s review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Stalking, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Murder, Pedophilia, and Infidelity

isamoledo's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I’ve never been more mad while reading a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

axahean's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Sexual content, Bullying, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Car accident, and Death

nickyz's review

dark funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

micaelamariem's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Liked this and hated that I liked it because of all the er ethical considerations. And everyone makes me mad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Sexism, and Sexual content

midnacine's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this! The story was interesting and engaging, the world building was pretty intense and unique, and the little bit of spice was enticing.
But goddamn, getting past the poor writing was a struggle. About 100 pages in, the only way for me to continue was to start annotating just so I could edit as I read. I restructured sentences, corrected grammar and spelling, and added punctuation where necessary. It honestly felt like no one but the authors read through the book before sending it out to print. And don't even get me started on the fact that Tory and Darcy- two 18-year-old girls who were supposed to have grown up in the US- used terms like "sports kit" and "postie", which are very British terms.
But again, I enjoyed it. So am I gonna read the rest of the series, no matter how infuriating it is? Absolutely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Incest, Vomit, and Medical content

lifeonasofa's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The Awakening Zodiac Academy ♍️ Review 

“Tears never did anyone any favours, but sometimes they just needed to fall” 😭 - Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti 

⭐️⭐️💫 2.75 Stars

It only took me 2 weeks, but I got there. Shout out to @buddy for keeping me going. The hype surrounding this series is pretty intense and I didn’t realise quite how many HUGE books there were already! The first book was sat on my kindle for a while so I thought why not. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

First of all, I know I went in blind but I heard NOTHING about the sheer amount of bullying in this book. Wow. The WHOLE plot…bullying. I’ll be honest, a good 65% of this book was slow and painful. Very little happened, also everyone is so GROSS. 🙈

I was/still am intrigued by the school, the world and everything the Vega twins have yet to explore. The whole zodiac thing was pretty cool, but we really didn’t get a whole lot of info tbh. I have more questions than answers. 🤔 

I like the twins, they both have likeable personalities, lots of strength. They both however, lost themselves around boys. Said boys (and teachers) are so awful they don’t deserve a paragraph, they will never redeem themselves. 👎🏻

The last 35% was full of friendship, lust and action which I actually read in one sitting. So I don’t know what the authors were playing at with the first 300 pages! The ending made me so uncomfortable, but I’ll hand it to them…I’m intrigued. Darn it! 🙃

Overall, I do not understand the hype. But I do want to read book 2. Please check TWs before reading as this whole bullying thing seems wildly unnecessary to me. 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death, Abandonment, and Alcohol

cricket_witch's review against another edition

dark lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol

raiderqueen23's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting